I wish game developers would realise that a lot of people refuse to use the service because it requires you to sign up and sign in when you want to get something. It's not worth it. Their loss. They could have just set up a bittorrent.

Lots of companies that offer demos are moving to bittorrent. The only problem is there are zero seeds and zero peers. For something like this, a full game being given away for free, I could see using bittorrent.. One existing problem, though, is most people who are downloading have upload speeds that are just a fraction if their download speed. And there's no real motivation (other than "You Just Should") for sharing after your download is done.

Lots of companies that offer demos are moving to bittorrent. The only problem is there are zero seeds and zero peers. For something like this, a full game being given away for free, I could see using bittorrent.. One existing problem, though, is most people who are downloading have upload speeds that are just a fraction if their download speed. And there's no real motivation (other than "You Just Should") for sharing after your download is done.

I don't know if this is supported by the bittorrent protocol, but combining bittorrent with freecache.org would be ideal. The freecache service allows for caching of files over 5MB in size, and works by prefixing your URL like so:

http://freecache.org/http://gamez.com/HalfLife2Dem o.exe

After the freecache system downloads it itself and seeds it to multiple other high-speed servers, an end-user can click on the link and their browser will get redirected to one of the other servers.

If bittorrent allows for HTTP redirects to be used in combination with the URL for download, this would be a perfect solution.

Most of the free games released on FilePlanet I mirror on my website, http://www.schkerke.com [schkerke.com]. My bandwidth is good and they usually end up there fairly quickly. Fileplanet has me limited @ 215Kbp/s at the moment so Ground Control is taking some time.

The biggest problem actually comes in with the CD keys. I own Ground Control and I'm fairly damned positive that it used a CD key for installation purposes. Tribes 2 required a key and FilePlanet was the only place authorized to give them out; *that* killed that freebie.

How long does it normally take to get the CD key? I started waiting in line about an hour ago and I still haven't gotten it. I even changed the invalid email address on my FilePlanet ID and submitted the Ground Control signup sheet again to make sure it didn't get sent to the wrong place (which it shouldn't have, I put the proper email address on the signup sheet in the first place).

I wish game developers would realise that a lot of people refuse to use the service because it requires you to sign up and sign in when you want to get something. It's not worth it.

I know. Having to spend 2 minutes of my time filling out a form once, and then having to type my email address and password one time and click "yes" for my browser to remember it? Ridiculous! They expect me to do that just to get insanely fast downloads of free programs on their nickle? What's that matter with these people?

I played through Ground Control a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. If you are thinking that a game you get for free must be pretty marginal, think again. This is a tactical game, not really an RTS. You don't do harvesting of resources or anything - it's straight combat all the way!

I particularly enjoyed the fully 3D camera in this game and the graphics were very sweet for the time. At that time, I was running a P3 600 with 128 MB of RAM and a 64 MB Kyro 2 Graphics card. I had to turn down detail a bit for that rig to keep up so if you've a good modern system, it should look quite sweet. I fired it up on my new machine a couple of weeks ago to revisit the game when I heard the sequal was coming out and it still looks very nice today.

Anyway, if you've the time and bandwidth, this free game is WELL worth getting.

Indeed. I was a fan of GC, myself, until the house fire destroyed my CD. May get another copy via download and see how much fun it is second time around...

The implimentation of Real Time Tactics was quite entertaining. Simple compared to a lot of other games, but still a hoot. I'm looking forward to the sequel, now that I know it exists. I'm not a VU employee or anything... Just discovered the game in a discount bin about a year or so ago. Well worth my ten bucks!

I hold Ground Control up as THE greatest RTS.. (even if the 'S' (strategy) is more of a T (tactics). So far it's the only one to pull off a truly accessable and useful 3D interface. (I don't know why the other games don't just copy it.)

GC2 on the other hand made some poor decisions, and as far as I can tell they lost the magic.

If I signed up for one of these new keys...I'd have the original warez, the purchased box version, and finally the free-download version. (heh).

Really, the only personal detail you have to have to give them out is your e-mail address, and that doesn't even have to be your real one. Just get a throwaway hotmail account, and make up the rest of the data. Is that so much trouble?

I tried looking through the many many long pages about HotMail's terms of service (and passport). I suggest you do the same and see exactly what you are agreeing to. Yahoo's has this little tidbit:

You also agree to: (a) provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service's registration form (such information being the "Registration Data") and (b) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current

Well, why don't you just use a service like Spamhole [spamhole.com] to avoid e-mail signups? That's what I use.If I remember correctly, none of my FilePlanet info is real. I just use my usual Spamhole address, and then type in random stuff. Works great =)

Shortly after the original Ground Control was released, Massive/Sierra released an add-on to the game that they also gave away for free. Alas, by the time I got around to buying GC (a worthy investment; Ground Control is fun. It's sort of like the Myth series...except with tanks!) I couldn't find the add-on anywhere. I guess the offer had expired.

When I first read the article headline, I got all excited that at last I could pick up this add-on, but I guess it's not to be.